I Think I Really Need Help With This One

I've been giving this a lot of thought and I've decided I really need everyone's advice.

My dh and I both accepted transfers with our company which landed us smack dab in the middle of the current oil boom. The housing market here is horrendous! A reasonably-priced home will be on the market for maybe 3-4 hours. So we bought a new 5th wheel camper and were lucky to find a place to park it. It has worked out very well for us but it required some ruthless down-sizing. So except for a few of my smallest pans, all my cake stuff is in storage - 150 miles away.

Now here's my problem. In August, we'll be driving to California where our ds and his fiance' are both graduating from A school (he's Navy and she's Army). In a matter of ten days there's my dh's birthday, my birthday, our wedding anniversay, our future dil's birthday and the double graduation. And ds just informed us that while we're there, they're going to get married in a simple ceremony and have a big wedding when they both get back to Texas. (Yeah, right. Dealing with 2 branches of the military, who knows when that will be?)

How can I get through this without making a single cake? As it is, I haven't made one in 2 months and it's been torture! I've been looking at very simple designs - - some that I could finish (or repair) easily. And I've been checking into sources for dry ice since we'll be driving across the desert in the middle of August - yay. Yes, I could just buy one when we get there, but it's not the same.

My dh has been wonderful and he's trying to help but I just don't think he understands what it means to think that I might have to let all of this go by. I've seen the brilliant minds here come up with all kinds of ideas, so I'm hoping there's an answer. Thanks so much to all of you.

Wow that's quite a predicament! For something of a compromise, have you thought of making a lot of decorations for the cake(s) in advance and taking them with you, then just buying plain undecorated cakes when you get there to decorate yourself? I'm guessing you would be able to assemble the cakes quite quickly which would allow you the time to do a separate cake for each occasion if you wished (and if you have time to get all the sugar work done!). Obviously it wouldn't be quite the same as if you made the whole thing from scratch, but you could worry less about the transportation and they would look great on the photos. Good luck whatever you decide to do and congratulations on your many celebrations!!!! Let us know how you get on xxx

Wow that is a lot of special occasions, I'd be itching to get my teeth stuck into all of them so I can sympathise with your situation. I think Amycakes idea is a great compromise, you get to do all the fancy work which you can do in a fairly limited space and don't need a lot of equipment or a proper kitchen, and its easy to transport and then find a nice bakery for the plain cakes when you get there so you don't have to compromise too much on taste.

It's not the same as baking everything yourself but it would take out all the stress of having to source cake pans and transport them all through a desert!

Your decorating talent isn't going to disappear as you cross the dessert, what about just relaxing and actually enjoying each special occasion - taking lots of pictures THEN once you get settled in, get back to creating - all fresh and full of great ideas. You sound all wound up and super stressed. Easy girl friend, back it down a notch and this is when all those wonderful creative juices will flow like a raging river.

If you are close to Los Angeles, you could take advantage of the new Duff Cake "decorate a cake" thingee.

"Choose a 6-inch ($36) or 9-inch ($52) round cake to decorate, then choose from cake flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, marbled chocolate and vanilla, red velvet, carrot or the flavor of the week. Filling flavors include cream cheese, vanilla, chocolate or the weekly special."

Or, depending on where you are in California, purchase frozen cakes from a bakery supplier and then decorate the crud out of 'em. In San Diego you can purchase cakes from Do It With Icing.

Where in CA will you be? Maybe one of us could help you out......either loaning equipment, kitchen or baking for you?The idea of making lots of decorations to go on purchased cakes might be a good one. Pick one or two, maybe 3 of those occasions to do that on and as Denise said......"Easy girl friend, back it down a notch and this is when all those wonderful creative juices will flow like a raging river".

Sorry for taking so long to answer - I didn't get any notices that anyone responded. Thank you so much for your ideas. And you're all right - - more stress at the moment is not what I need. I guess the new position is taking its toll

We're heading for the Presidio at Monterey - sounds so military! I'm really excited since we actually get to stay on the base. And we've only seen ds twice since April last year so I can hardly wait.

I guess I just needed to see my dilemma in black and white because once I had posted this my mind started working again. And you're right - I need to do as much here ahead of time as possible.

I really want to bake the cake(s) so I've settled on a simple 2-tier 6"-8" combination graduation and wedding cake. My freezer is 10" tall and 12" deep so everything else will have to go when it's time to freeze it. I thought I'd level, fill and crumb coat and then freeze the tiers separately. They'll go in their own ice chest with a gallon of bc and all decorations will be in a separate box. This will have to do me for now, but I've got dibs on the BIG wedding cake!